


i keep renaming this story so if any title suggestions, hit me.

by xFuckenReadyx



Category: NSYNC
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Alternate Universe, Children, Divorce, Drama, F/M, Fatherhood, HIV/AIDS, M/M, NSYNC - Freeform, POV Third Person, POV Third Person Omniscient, Single Parents, Work In Progress, comedic relief
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-01-27
Updated: 2014-02-01
Packaged: 2018-01-10 06:26:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 12,308
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1156213
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xFuckenReadyx/pseuds/xFuckenReadyx
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Justin, Chris, Lance, Joey, and JC are a pretty tight knit group, their friendships dating all the way back to preschool up to their graduation day of high school when everyone moved in different directions, starting families by plan and some...well, not so planned. Today they are a reunited group, all living the single father lifestyle. Can all five disfunctional father's provide an easy life for their children? or is it an inevitable crash and burn with their crazy exes and own self problematics dragging them down?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Meet the Fathers

**Author's Note:**

> May be slowly updated but will not rest until it is complete.

Just watching the Carosel go around and round in circles repeatedly made Chris feel like vomiting all over the place, but he was afraid to take his eyes off of it for a second. Straddled one of the smaller ponies was a little five year old girl who was easy to pick out in her pastel purple dress, she looked steady but he wasn't about to take any chances of her falling off. Today was Chris' first day out with the girl, he'd only met her last night when her mother had come along and dropped her off with him, saying it was time he man up and take care of what he'd brought into the world. Problem was, he didn't even know she existed until that moment and had no knowledge whatsoever about parenting or little girls for that matter. Lucky for Chris all of his closest friends were parent's, single fathers actually. All of them had grown up with each other from the day they'd eaten glue to the day they graduated high school, after that, all the young men went in separate directions.

He moved by the exit as the ride came to a halt and waited for the man to unbuckle her belt and lift her off the pony and onto the ground, she seemed content. 

"What now...daddy..." She said obviously hesitant to entitle him as her father, like he hadn't earned such a medal of honor yet. This was true.

"We're gonna go meet daddy's friends now okay?" He told her and waited for her to nod her head of dark, almost black, hair, just like his. Chris found his for friends hanging around the picnic tables, next door to the dunk-tank where a clown man sat, taunting Chris' friend, JC on his horrid throwing ability. Chris watched as his friend eventually gave up and slammed his fist into the target, sending the man into moderately tempered waters. 

JC had always been like this, ever since Chris had known him in school, JC had been that kid who was sent to the Dean's office for drawing on the cafeteria wall with spaghetti sauce or skipping dramatically fast down the halls. Some people like himself and the others, took kindly enough to JC's idiotic antics, but most people couldn't stand him, and sometimes, they couldn't either. He'd ended up with a chip off the old block, Jeremy, from a meaningless one night stand. Sadly, the mother of energy ball Jeremy, was a french girl who was deported back to France, leaving the child with JC. 

Sitting at the first picnic table was Lance with his teenage daughter Miora across from him, her eyes glued to the cell phone in her hands. Miora was 15, and obviously a no nonsense type of girl, seemingly fed up with her father who only scowled at her. Poor Lance had left his wife a good ten years ago when he'd told her he was gay. She took five year old Miora with her, but the court sent her back to Lance ten years later due to his ex wifes' drug induced lifestyle and irrisponsibility. Unfortunately, Lance couldn't really hold his way of life over her's either considering he was drunk for half of it. Justin sat on Miora's side of the chipping table with ten month old baby Jason strapped to his chest. Chris made his way over and made himself comfortable across from Justin. 

"Magan, why don't you go play with Kloey over there in the sand okay?" Chris suggested and Magan complied, heading over to Kloey without any shyness visible and taking to the little blonde girl swimmingly. 

"So" began Justin, tipping the formula bottle up a little more and Jason attempted to suck it dry. "How's it really going?" 

Chris sighed and was quite ashamed of it too. "It's different, she's too sweet and well mannered, but she's so rowdy sometimes, and gets into things and asks way too many questions, and-"

"Yeah okay i get it, she's a five year old girl. I don't really know your pain yet since this one still can't talk, but i've seen enough to know these are all normal symptoms of being a little girl." Justin said, trying to joke with Chris to lighten the mood, but Chris wasn't feeling it. 

"Just wait till they get older and ungrateful." Lance warned him, finally lifting his head from his arms to speak up. He heard Miora scoff as she plugged her headphones into her ears. "This is the life..." 

Chris looked at his friend concerned. "Dude, are you hungover again?" He asked even though he already knew the answer. 

Lance nodded and hicupped. "Yeah, and before you ask, she's mad because apparently people don't like it when you show up to parent teacher meet thingies a little bit tipsy." He explained rolling his eyes, and that's Miora turned around sharply and ripped the headphones from here ears. "Guess what asshole." Justin proceeded to cover the ears of his child. "You weren't 'a little tipsy' you were a lot tipsy, like to the point where you made me look like at idiot to all of my friends while you decided to hit on all of my male teachers!" She shouted full of rage. 

"I liked the science teacher, now he was hot," replied Lance smoothly making Miora groan harshly and plug her headphones back in, cranking up the volume so loud, you could hear the general beat of the song from the outside. 

Chris tried to hold back a small bit of laughter. "Yeah Lance, teenage girls don't tend to like their fathers to do that sort of thing, i think taking her to the mall and watching movies with her will suffice for now." He told his friend who moped some more before lifting his head again.

“I know.” Lance surrendered and quirked his mouth to the side in disappointment. “Don’t worry, I’m not tacky. Like hell if you think I’ll pull that same stunt twice.”  
Justin and Chris chuckled and waved at Joey as he left JC who was now explaining to Carnival security why exactly he was torturing the poor man in the dunk-tank and making his way over to them at the table, standing at the end. 

“Chris buddy, you have no idea how grateful I am for your little girl.” Joey expressed delightedly, making Chris kind of confused. “What I mean is, Kloey is beginning to get restless and loud, with Magan, they can wear each other out in the end.” He clarified. Chris saw his point and was glad for this as well. Joey’s oldest daughter Briahna was ten and too old to voluntarily keep her four year old sister Kloey entertained. These two girls had a close connection with their father and even their mother. It was hard for them to comprehend what if meant for their mother and father to be splitting up, but slowly they were becoming aware of how this event would change their family life. 

“Yeah, back at you.” Dealt Chris as he watched an excited Jeremy destroy a sand castle Kloey and Magan had been working on, posing as a dragon and roaring at the vacant air. Justin opened his mouth, ready to call over JC but Jason began coughing violently, cueing Justin to give Jason his daily dose of meds. The meds were to help suppress the early symptoms of his HIV status. Justin himself did not have the virus although having unprotected sex with his long time fiancé, he was lucky it was a bit more of a task to pass it female to male, but their child, and his fiancé for that matter, weren’t so lucky. She’d already been in a week state before the news of her pregnancy. The delivery room was the end of her. Jason had not shown many symptoms yet besides suspicious non-stop coughing, but the doctors warned him since he was born with it, symptoms may appear earlier in the ten year window period. To Chris, Jason looked as healthy and cute a baby as ever.

"I'm officially banned from the dunk tank here." JC announced proudly, strolling toward them. "So where's the infamous Magan?" he asked raising an eyebrow and turned his attention in the direction to which Chris pointed. The scene was Jeremy attempting to sing Rihanna's 'S&M' while raining sand over the girls. "Oh dear lord." Groaned JC and went to take care of the situation. 

"At least he's trying." Joey recognized and the others agreed. "Which is more than what i can say for this guy." he added, pointing 'discreetly' to Lance who flipped him off in return. 

Chris cleared his throat. "So where to now fellas?" 

They all stared at one another for a moment before Joey spoke up. "Cookout at my place?" 

This was good, this was very good.


	2. The Power of Propane

Joey had a large house. He was surprised Kelly, his ex wife, didn’t want to take it from him. Joey worked as a well respected doctor and surgeon in the local hospital, he made it well for himself, and the house was a sense of bragging right and pride for him even though Kelly had helped get it. If she wasn’t going to fight for it Joey would gladly volunteer as recipient of the structure. 

The men and their children made themselves comfortable in his home as if they lived there which made Joey very happy. 

“Alright, who’s going to be my co-griller tonight?” Joey asked, tying an old, clever worded apron round him and rummaging through his kitchen for a spatula. 

“Count me out.” Lance declined immediately and sprawled out on his plush vanilla couch.  
“I wasn’t counting you in Bass, I wouldn’t let you cook my meat if you and I were the lat people on earth.” chuckled Joey shaking his head.

Lance mumbled in reply. “That’s what they all say.” 

Miora jumped up from the couch and glared at her father. “Gross Dad!” she yelled before storming out into the backyard. 

Justin tried not to laugh at his friend’s misfortune. “Lance, I feel as if you forget she is a teenage girl and you’re her father, not her peer. You can’t talk like that in front of her. It’s going to weird her out.” 

“Fine, let her be weirded out, she’ll survive.” He stated, adjusting and getting comfortable on the couch.

JC looked around and got up, taking the extra apron Joey was holding from him and joining him in the kitchen. “Oh no, I think maybe I should rethink this and get Bass in here.” Joey laughed and JC punched him in the arm.

“So…” JC began “How’s the divorced life treating you?” Maybe this wasn’t the most sensitive of questions.

Joey smiled and gave JC props for trying but his smile faded quickly as he sighed almost mournfully. “She wants the kids man. She wants to take my kids and live with that-that prick Nick Lachey in the fucking hills.” He was slowly forgetting how to breath as each word escaped his lips. 

“You won’t let her do that, she CANT do that, what right does she have? She has no case against you! It’s not like you denied HER joint custody.” JC said, he wanted to say something helpful, but what? 

Joey snorted “Of course I won’t let her, if anyone can take care of these kids it’s me. Obviously…” He piled up all of his frozen food item and gestured for JC to open the back door. The two walked out on the porch deck where Miora was still texting away on her phone in one of the patio chairs. She’d finally removed that dark hoody of hers and it surprised Joey how much she really looked like Lance, facial feature wise, which wasn’t an insult, considering Lance’s face was sporting femininity itself. Joey ordered JC to start the grill while he laid everything out and prepared it for cooking. 

 

The coughing wasn’t stopping. Justin prepared Jason’s infant friendly T cell medicine while Jason lay in Kloey’s old crib, coughing away uncontrollably. Crushing the pills he mixed it in with some sweet potato baby mash. As Justin mixed it in, Jason’s coughs became more violent, embedding in Justin’s brain and echoing through his conscience. Taking a sharp breath Justin closed his eyes for a minute, trying to hold back any tears, now was not the time for that. Finally it was ready for him to feed his son. The cough softened over the span of an hour but the guilt that pained Justin was still attacking him. Watching Jason asleep in the crib was a moment to cherish in itself who knew when he could lose him. He couldn’t think about that now. 

“JC WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?” Joey shouted, watching his grill burst into flames on the deck, Miora had backed off and went inside the house. “Where’s the extinguisher!?” he demanded, searching frantically, his Grill ran on a propane tank, although small, if detonated, it would create considerably large damage to his porch and house. 

“Why are you asking me? This is YOUR house!” JC shouted back and helped Joey look for the extinguisher which he thought was a bit inconveniently placed on Joey’s part. The two ran back into the kitchen to search for it while the others watch from a far.

“Aha!” Joey shouted holding it up, when a sonic boom erupted from the back yard, the glass door shattered and his deck was blown to pieces. Joey hung his mouth open astonished at the damage such a small propane tank could do. the side of the house was in critical condition and his family and friends stood against the wall furthest from the scene looking just as amazed as Joey was, accept for JC who only looked purely sorry. 

“Uh ha, Sorry.” 

At the end of the day Chris volunteered to order pizza instead, receiving it later than thirty minutes, he was lucky to get it free of cost. Everyone occupied the living room, gathered around the television to watch the new “Lego Movie” the kids and even Joey and JC were dying to see. Magan, insisted on sitting in Chris’ lap, which was weird to him at first, but the more she called him “daddy” the more he finally began to gain a sense of actually being this little girl’s father. It was odd how quickly she took to him, but maybe Magan was just better at accepting the fate life gave her rather than analyzing it and avoiding what she didn’t like. Chris admired her for this.

Thankfully the younger kids were able to lie down for naps, just what everyone here needed. The guys broke out the beers while Miora sat in a chair in the far corner and Briahna colored in her sketch pad. The house still smelt like burning toxic fumes, but Joey wasn’t going to worry about that now, he was just glad to have his friends around, even JC, that stupid fuck.  
Lance passed the bottle opener down the table and pushed his beer away from him frowning.  
“Umm.” JC said looking at him. “That’s not normal, who are you and what have you done with Lance?”  
Sighing, Lance spoke. “You guys were right. I need to get my drinking under control.”  
“Well we didn’t really say th-“ Justin began but was cut off.  
“It’s time to take responsibility.” He said, at this Miora’s head popped up and looked in the direction of the dining room table the men surrounded. Lance eyed the beer once more and grinned. “Well, maybe after one last drink, let’s make this one last.” He said holding it up ceremoniously and cracking it open, taking a long slow swig that made Miora cringe.  
Lance meant this, the others looked at him like he was joking, but he so wasn’t! Was he?  
A few beers in and the ideas and words came flowing out like magic. This idea was never meant to be taken seriously, but you know when things just snowball?

“What if we took a single father workshop together?” Lance laughed drunkenly and the others followed along. 

“Yeah, we’d be horrible at it.” JC pointed out and they all looked him.

“Yeah, maybe you.” Joey said unapologetically. “I’d be top of our class.” 

Everyone barraged him with doubt, waving their beers in front of them.

“I think we’d do great, or learn somethin’maybe.” Chris slurred, his friends nodded. “You know what! Let’s-letzdoo it!” proposed as everyone cheered him on when he got up from the table and dug out his cell phone from his pocket, researching the number to a place with a cheesy name. “Yaaasss, hello? I’m Chris Kirkpatrick and my buddies and I would like to enrooooll.”


	3. The Participant Parent

The next morning came with a well deserved hang over and little girl fingers poking his face extra hard.

“Umm, owe.” He groaned tiredly, but forced a smile at her. “What’s up kiddo?” He asked and watched curiously as she pointed to her soaking wet pajamas. 

“I tried to make breakfast, but the- the milk was too heavy for my arms, an- and I dropped it everywhere.” Magan told him.  
‘ll be there in a minute.” He assured and sat up, stretching his arms and rubbing his eyes. The spill was pretty horrific, but it was nothing compared to the damage on Joey’s house last night, so he wasn’t about to complain. Chris had just rinsed out the last of the milk in the rag when his phone buzzed in his PJ pants pocket., opening the text message…

Dear Mr. Kirkpatrick, thank you for your interest in The Participant Parent Day Camp, we have validated your purchase and it is confirmed on our rosters that a Mr. Chasez, Timberlake, Fatone, Bass, and yourself will be attending our first orientation today at One o’ clock sharp.  
Thank you for your time and participation! This program is certified to enhance your parenting skills and thus create a better relationship with your child.  
Sincerely your friends at The Participant Parent.

“What the fuck…” mumbled Chris, drawing a little gasp from Magan.

“Naughty words.” She said to him and he nodded to her in agreement. 

After Chris had given Magan a bath and helped her pick out her outfit for the day, some jean overall shorts with a pink t-shirt underneath. That’s when his phone blew up. 

“Yo, you really signed us up for that parenting class thing didn’t you!?” JC Spoke over the phone, not in an angry manner, but more distressed than anything.

Chris shrugged his shoulders and took a deep breath. “Yeah man, remember cheering me on?” 

“Strangely enough, yeah. Why? I don’t know.” 

“Well, are you still down, I mean I did pay for it and…” Chris said scrolling through his email and opening the one from ‘The Participant Parent’. “It says no refunds man.” 

JC rolled his eyes and leaned into the phone some. “Sure, when is it? Oh! Never mind I got an email about it as well.” He informed. 

“Meet me there okay? I’ll see you then, right now, I have loads of work to be done for that presentation tomorrow.” Said Chris. 

“Bye.”  
Shoving the phone back in his pocket, Chris hopped on his Mac and got started on a pitch for a big art museum advertisement.  
One O’clock rolled around fairly slower than Lance had expected, the hangover barely felt like a hangover at all to him, but her knew his friends were feeling it.

“Miora!” Lance shouted through the apartment, waiting for her to emerge out of whatever hiding place she’d cradled herself into. Miora came stumbling out of the bedroom wearing sweats and her regular hoody. Her blonde hair was at least up today, making it look nice and less messy.

“Please tell me we don’t have to do this gay shit.” She pouted, classically crossing her arms. 

Lance grimaced and tried to speak calmly. “Okay one, you are too young to swear like that. It’s so tacky. Two, yeah, we’re gonna do that ‘gay shit’ that was paid for already by Chris, trust me, not looking forward to it, but I’m obligated.” 

“Whatever.” Miora whined and followed her dad into the car as they followed the directions on Lance’s GPS. This place seemed to be going further back into the more forested areas of their town, Lance didn’t explore this part much, he was more of a city man. 

When they pulled up, it finally struck Lance as to what this really was. 

“A day camp?” the words were un-tasteful. “Kirkpatrick signed us up for day camp?” 

“Yeah Lance, can’t you read the signs?” Miora pointed out mockingly and Lance shot a glare at her. 

“Seriously, you’re putting me on a first name basis now? What did I do wrong?” 

It only look an hour for everyone to find their way there, luckily they had all made it by twelve forty five, plenty of time to find where they needed to be. 

Justin leaned in and whispered in Chris’ ear. “You were aware this was a whole day camp thing right?” He asked, playing with the little baby strapped to his chest. 

Chris nodded responding. “Well, I was aware this morning when I got the text message stating it was a day camp program, threw me off guard too.” He admitted, leading the group of five plus some toward the labeled building and went up to the front desk. Behind the desk was a model worthy receptionist who sported quaft dark hair and a snug blue v-neck. 

“Hello I’m Michael, you look like you’re here for The Participant Parent program, or the P.P.P.” said the handsome man.

JC hid behind Joey and began snickering to himself, whispering “He said Pee Pee Pee” to Justin who couldn’t even react to that. The others gave him looks of disappointment, everyone except Lance who was too busy fixated on the hot receptionist to even understand the words coming out of JC’s mouth, or anyone’s mouth for that matter. Maybe he could get used to this whole parent class thing. 

“Yeah, I’m Chris Kirkpatrick.” 

“Yes, here you are.” Michael said pulling his order up in the computer. “Well you all seem ready, follow that hall all the way down and you should come to a large room where some chairs will be set up in a circle, please find a spot and the first session will start in a minute.” He informed politely, looking them over. 

“Sure thing.” answered Justin and they all made their way down the hall where children’s art hung proudly in clean frames to the very end. Joey let Briahna go ahead of him and push open the doors to let the parade of men through. It was a little awkward meeting with other single fathers who looked pre-friendly with one another, all choosing seat on the far side away from the door. 

“This is the part where you can’t decide which is more impolite, sitting near them and invading their privacy or sitting far away from them and making them feel alienated.” Justin mumbled to Chris who agreed with him. Decidedly the group settled next to the door, but made sure to cast smiles in their direction every once in a while. 

Lance looked around the room, observing the other five men and the place in general. “I wonder who runs this thing.” He asked curious, then the door swung open again and in came Michael, the receptionist from the desk. 

“Good day gentlemen…” Michael said clapping his hands together, then, crouching down to the level of their kids. “And children. I’m Michael Turchin, it’s good to meet you all. Now before we begin doing the activities and all, let me just tell you a little bit about myself and the content of this program. Although I’m fairly young, I was a single father once as well, unfortunately my child passed away not too long ago…” 

Everyone froze, looking sympathetic and mournful.

“But.” continued Michael as if he hadn’t just dropped a bombshell. “In my time of being a single father, some particular things came into my view, how in order to start a healthy relationship with your child you have to have a good balance of connectivity and isolation. These kids work extra hard to accept fathers, we didn’t carry them around for nine months, we don’t have that natural connection right away, studies show… This program is designed to show your kids you are someone to trust, someone who will be there for them and provide. It is to build a connection.” 

The fathers around the room all held different expressions, some looked doubtful, quirking their mouths to the side and raising eyebrows. Others seemed hopeful, nodding softly. Lance didn’t really move. Joey was nodding and even Chris, Justin too. JC was scratching a lotto ticket.

“Thank you for your time and coming today, if there are any questions, I’d love to hear them.” Michael announced, looking around when a man with a grey beanie hat sporting a handlebar mustache with a full beard raised his hand. “Ah yes.” said Michael spotting him.

The man put his tattoo ridden arm down and smiled. My Name’s AJ, AJ McLean, I was just wondering What kind of activities these are, like mental? Physical?” 

“A bit of both, this is a camp after all, not a camp without a little physical activity. Since it’s our first day, I’d advise you all to maybe get to know each other, let’s start with names?” suggested Michael, pointing to the questioner, AJ. “You can start.” 

“Sure, well like I said, I’m AJ McLean, and this is my one and a half year old Ava.” He introduced, referring to the adorable baby girl sitting comfortable on his lap. 

“I’m Brian.” said a short, muscular, sandy haired man. He looked to the fidgeting boy who sat next to him. “Want to introduce yourself?” He asked the child who grinned, nodding his head. “I’m Baylee Littrell, I’m ten years old.” 

“Hola, my name is Howie Dorough, and this is my five year old son James and my almost 11 month old Holden.” He told the rest of the group. _Wow these guys are baby making machines, we’re totally outnumbered_ , Justin thought to himself.

“The name is Nick.” Came in a very tall, very fit, blonde, looking around his early thirties with a young girl wearing long blonde hair as well, standing by him playing with some trucks, rolling them across the young man’s leg as he spoke. “And this is Jenny, She’s three.” 

The last one was an older man, around Chris’ age. He had dark hair and a full mustache connecting a beard covering only his chin and was very tall as well. “My name is Kevin Richardson.” He said in a slow country accent. “This is Mason, he’s eight, and this is Maxwell, he’s six months.” 

Chris smiled at them in a friendly manner but Jesus he couldn’t imagine being a single father with two kids, he wondered how Joey handled it. 

Joey really sympathized with these guys, having two kids at a fair age difference made them difficult to keep up with, having one becoming older asking for phones and boyfriends while the other was only interested in pulling what very little hair you had left out of your head. 

Lance and his friends introduced themselves as well. The other guys seemed a bit cocky to Lance, why were they even here? They didn’t have a teenager to deal with, someone who’d only known him six years prior. Miora had been staying with him for a year now and it was like hell for the both of them. Lance spoke directly to Michael when he talked, he wasn’t shy, and gave him undeniable eye contact. It was simple, if he held the eye contact back, he was gay, and interested if he did but shortly, he was gay but uninterested, if he quickly looked away, he was totally and sadly straight. Michael held contact, but broke away after a good twenty seconds, leaving Lance disappointed. Like hell if he was going to stop trying though.


	4. This is the Scene of Arising Drama

The session ended at three thirty, a fair enough time, they would be every Saturday at the same time which worked for everyone there fairly enough accept for Brian who would be at Baylee’s soccer practice till two o’clock. Joey wasn’t about to admit it due to the programs cheesy nature, but he was really excited about this, maybe with the rep of these classes on his side he could convince the judge full custody to one parent wasn’t the answer. H was undoubtedly tempted to fight for full custody himself, but he was bigger than that, he understood that Kelly loosing the kids completely would be the end of her world. Their first meeting since he’d received the papers was tonight at six o’ clock. Joey had prepared his lawyer for the meeting and asked Lance to babysit the kids for him. Joey prepared for that too removing any alcoholic beverage from Lance’s reach, Literally. 

“Fuck.” muttered Lance looking up on top of the high cupboards. Joey really placed the alcohol out of his reach. Smart son of a bitch, Lance thought and gave up, dragging himself into the living room where Miora laid across one of the couches watching the news. Something about a robbery and shooting he thought and occupied the couch next to her. Kloey was on the other side of the room playing with her play dough kitchen set and Briahna was coming down the stairs, balancing a short stack of books in her arms. 

“Lance.” She said coming over to him with the books, he recognized them, they were all Dr. Suess, Lance’s favorite. “Since I’m ten and can read very well, I thought it was about time we read these to Kloey.” She suggested, shrugging her shoulders. 

“Sure, if she wants, maybe before bed which will be soon, I’ll read them too her.” Promised Lance and turned his attention to the little girl playing tiredly with play dough. “time for a bath Kloey.” He announced and she nodded her little blonde head exhausted. 

Without a fuss Kloey and Briahna were both clean and in bed by seven thirty, Lance took out the books Briahna brought to him earlier and pulled out one of his favorites ‘Horton Hears a Who!’ and began reading to the girls. He was surprised they were able to stay awake to the very end of the book but he could tell as soon as he was finished they’d pass out. “...ME, TOO! From sun in the summer. From rain when it’s fall-ish” He read. “I’m going to protect them. No matter how small-ish!” 

“It’s been a while.” Miora said as Lance re-entered the living room and returned to his spot, laying down, his head away from Miora’s couch. 

“What?” 

“It’s been a while since I’ve heard you read those.” Miora explained, scrolling through something on her phone. 

Lance thought about it for a moment, it had been too long with too many drinks in between for him to remember well, but the more he thought about it, the more it rang a bell. “…Huh…” 

“So what, are we doing that dad class thing from now on?” She asked with a tone of annoyance soaking in her words. 

Returning the obvious annoyance, Lance said “Yeah, you heard what I said this morning.” 

“I also saw the way you drooled over that Michael guy.” She muttered, but Lance heard her loud and clear. 

“Yeah, well how come you’re never drooling over guys, I never hear you talk about them and you’ve been living with me for a year now.” elaborated Lance, raising his eyebrows at Miora who just rolled her eyes back. 

“Maybe I’m not pathetic.” 

Lance felt insulted. “Or maybe you’re a lesbian.” He retorted. He could tell by the look on Miora’s face that she was not pleased with his comeback. 

“Fuck you.” She groaned, turning over on the sofa, seemingly to get some sleep. 

“I love you too honey.” 

*****

“YOU”RE THE ONE WHO DROPPED US FOR SOME ASSHOLE DOUCHE BAG! And YOU think YOU should be the one to keep the kids? Woman, ARE YOU FUCKING INSANE?!” 

“NO Joey, ASSHOLE. I’m NOT. Little girls should be with THEIR MOTHER! YOU KNOW IT, SOCIETY KNOWS IT, that’s just how it goes.” 

Joey scoffed, leaning back in his chair so he could look at her in utter disbelief. “I’m sorry Kelly, but when did you become some OLD FASHIONED, CONFORMIST, CONSERVATIVE BITCH!?” 

Just then, Joey’s lawyer, Jeff Timons, leaned forward between the two. “Could we all just settle down, take a breath. Ms. Baldwin, Kelly, Joey is not here to take the girls away from you, so why are you trying to do that to him?” 

At this, Kelly looked down at her lap, making Joey nervous. Exactly, what WAS her motive? “Nick and I are moving to China.” She informed everyone in the room, and by the look of own lawyer’s, he wasn’t aware either. 

“China? Wha- what the fuck is in China?” Joey interrogated angrily, trying hard to keep his voice steady.

“A job, Drew, nick’s brother, got him a really good upgrade there. We’d have more than enough money to survive with the girls. The education opportunity is amazing, and we won’t need to worry about our fucking economy crashing either.” Kelly elucidated, looking at Joey guiltily.

“Kelly, that’s because they’re FUCKING COMMUNISTS!” 

“DEMOCRATIC COMMUNISTS!” 

Joey laughed. “Democratic communists? Kelly they’re still comm.-“

“-Can we PLEASE get back on track, about the kids.” this time it was Kelly’s lawyer’s turn to speak up. 

“Why are you doing this to me Kelly? I was never a bad father or a terrible husband. If you really cared about the well being of Briahna and Kloey, you’d stay and share custody. No, in fact, you wouldn’t have run after dick if you really cared about the well being of our kids.” Joey saw Kelly’s mouth open but no words came out, and before she could even come up with something to say back, Joey escorted himself out of the room and out of the building. It Looked like he was going all in. If his ex-wife thought she was going to go off and live some fairy-tale life in China with HIS kids and her precious Nick Lachey, she was dead wrong. 

*****

“Beer?” asked Chris, standing in front of the wide open fridge in his pajamas, looking to his friend, Justin who nodded and accepted the bottle that was handed to him. “How’s Jason doing?” Chris proceeded to ask.

Justin cracked the bottle open and took a sip. “Fine.” He said as he lowered it from his lips, and looked down at the baby sleeping peacefully in the sling that hung around Justin’s body. I think the temperature change is making him a little ill, but he seems to be doing okay.” This was all a lie. Justin had taken Jason to the doctors prior to stopping by his best friend’s place, just to be safe like always. The doctors often told Justin he didn’t have to check Jason in as much as he did, but he saw it otherwise. Lucky he didn’t listen to them, Jason’s specialist told him his immune system was very weak, and he was reaching a stage where he would be showing a lot more signs and symptoms of illness than before such as small seizures, unrelenting diaper rash, very slow production in growth and more that Justin immediately researched as soon as he came home. Worrying his friends was something he didn’t like to do, he often kept the medical side of things to himself, it all just felt way too personal for him to share with everyone, even Chris as the moment. He wanted them to look at Jason like the precious baby he was rather than someone who could die at any moment, the thought made Justin shut his eyes tightly, trying to think of other things to get rid of it. 

“Are YOU okay?” Chris asked , looking over at him. 

Justin waved his hand at him. “Yeah, I’m fine, just tired I guess. What time is it?”

“Ten o’clock. Wanna stay over?” 

“I guess it would be best if I did, thanks.” Justin smiled thoughtfully, then frowned again. “Hey did you hear about Joey and Kelly?” 

Chris nodded. “Seriously tragic, she needs to set her priorities straight. Who does that?” 

“Desperate, gold-digging bitches.” Chuckled Justin. 

The night grew later and later, but neither Justin, nor Chris was tired. Deep in conversation about who would be winning this upcoming Superbowl, the two were sweetly interrupted by Magan who stood in the hall with her pajamas soaked once again. She looked distraught and guilty when she blatantly said “I peed.” 

“Huh. Oh. Umm. I know what to do.” Chris said proudly, entering the kitchen.

“You do?” Justin said surprised.

“Uh, yeah, I do.” He dug under the cupboard for a bit then resurfaced with a whole roll of napkin, running it up to Magan’s room. Justin watched shaking his head. 

When confronted with the bed, Chris lay the napkin down in neat rows on top of her accident, so it wasn’t visible. Magan looked at him confused. “Now what?” She asked, standing in her wet pajamas still. 

“Well now you go to sleep right?” Chris questioned this move, but would see the effectiveness in a moment as Magan climbed back into her bed, but rolled off almost immediately as it started to soak through. “Yeah, I guess that was sort of a stupid idea.” Magan laughed at this and Chris decided it was time to call Joey and ask a few questions. He felt stupid after he’d hung up, had being informed on the simplicity of it all. Next time, he would ace this, god forbid there ever be a next time. 

*****

“Look who came to crash my party.” Lance said smiling at JC as he walked up to the front of the house away from the driveway of Joey’s house and sat on the steps with Lance who was smoking a cigarette. “Umm JC, where is Jeremy?” he asked him confused as all fuck. 

“Oh, he’s sleeping in the car.” JC assured, gesturing to the car he’d pulled up in. 

“Beautiful parenting JC, A plus.” Lance laughed, covering his face with his fee hand. 

“What! The night is warm enough so I cracked the window that way if he cries or anything, I’ll hear him. Not to mention, I can see him from these here steps so I don’t see a problem present my dear friend.” JC had a point. 

“I have good news! Guess who I spoke with today when we got back from that camp thingy?” JC challenged, the look of excitement on his face was too much for Lance and he let out another chuckle. 

“Who?”

“Christina.” Revealed JC.

“Like, baby mama Christina? What’s the slut up to?” Lance asked, seeing his choice of words weren’t JC’s favorite. “Dude, she got pregnant, by YOU, then had the baby, and dropped him on YOU, then took off to nowhere land to fuck other men, how can you expect me to give her a good name?” This time, Lance had a point. 

“I know…but she’s back, and she wants me and Jeremy back.” 

“Are you sure that’s for the best?” 

“Of course it is!” JC said confidently. “I’ll have the whole family together. It’ll be great. Since we’re both working we could be financially stable an-“ 

“You’re a pizza delivery boy and she’s a stripper, how is that financially stable?” interrupted Lance, taking another puff of his cigarette. JC’s happy hopefulness was completely wiped dry now. 

“Lance, why do you have to rain on my parade like this? I’m trying to look at the positive side of things and all you do is smack me in the face.” pointed out JC, clearly upset. 

“You’re right, you’re right, I’m sorry. Maybe I’m just bitter.” Apologized Lance sincerely. “You’re right though, you will be more financially stable than you are currently, she didn’t pay child support before correct? I applaud you, I don’t know how you’ve been surviving as a pizza delivery boy with a kid for three years. “ 

“You guys, well, maybe not you, but the other guys having kids so close in age to mine I’m able to bum diapers, clothes, formula, toys even.” He explained with a guilty smile. 

“Don’t worry about it, I’m sure they’ve noticed and don’t mind, I mean, it can’t be worse than me bumming beer from them twenty four seven.” Lance admitted as he and JC watch Joey pull into the driveway, the look on his face through the windshield told them luck had not been on his side.


	5. One Step Forward and Two Steps Back

“You’re late, AGAIN.” JC’s boss growled as he threw the address book at him while JC adjusted his hat. 

“I’m sorry, Jeremy was protesting daycare today and-“ JC tried to defend himelf but was cut off by the wave of his boss’ hand. 

“Forget it.” He groaned and dragged himself back into the office. His first order of the day was done in minutes and he was out the door like a bullet, guiding himself to his first destination. Under twenty minutes, luckily the apartment building wasn’t too far. JC walked up to the front and rung the bell, the door buzzed and let him in. Up the stairs he climbed until he was on the third floor, standing in front of apartment 4B. He only had to wait a few seconds after ringing the doorbell for someone to answer it, a familiar face indeed. To JC’s surprise, Christina stood gleeful in the doorway, wearing only her bathrobe. 

“JC! I knew you’d come.” She said, pulling him inside against his will. 

“Well you did order pizza, and it is my job to-“

“Yes, yes, whatever, sit.” She demanded, pointing to the comfortable looking armchair placed conveniently in her small living room. 

JC smiled faintly but shook his head. “Christina, I have to get back to work, I was already late this morning.” He explained sorrowful when he saw the look of disappointment on Christina’s face. 

“All you have to do is stay for a minute.” She pleaded, making her eyes wide and irresistible. JC couldn’t help but give in and sit in the arm chair, keeping an eye on the time. Suddenly Christina had herself on her knees in front of him, leaning forward while she ran her hands up his legs. 

“Christina, no.” whined JC, hoping she’d back up soon before it was too late, but all she did was grin back and work on the his belt buckle and zipper. It was definitely too late. JC glanced over at the clock one more time, logically the more he just enjoyed this, the quicker it’s go by.

***

“Daddy, is mommy going to come take me back soon?” Magan asked, looking at Chris who had rotated in his computer chair to see her, his face reading conflicted as ever. 

“Maybe, why?” 

“I’m bored.” She admitted blankly. Chris couldn’t really help that, he had a presentation due today at five o’ clock sharp. He’d taken to working at home so he wouldn’t have to waste money on daycare or a nanny, paying for food and clothes for this girl was already beginning to add up. It was one o’ clock and he was halfway through his final product, maybe he could spare a little time to entertain Magan.

“You’re bored huh?” He said, getting out of his computer chair and making his way to the floor so he was on her level as she sat there with a small table, serving tea to her stuffed animals. “Well, maybe you need another party animal at your tea party.” He suggested, claiming a side of the table where she pushed a little pink cup and plate toward him. 

“What would you like sir? We have tea, coffee, water, milk and beer.” She told him. Chris didn’t really know how to respond when she said beer, but laughed it off and asked for Tea. “Coming right up!” Chris’ tea was finished In a matter of seconds and served to him. “That’ll be ninety one dollars and eighteen cents.” She added.

“Ninety one dollars and eighteen cents!” He shouted, pretending to be outraged and surprised. “Well all I have is eighteen cents.” Chris dug up some change from his pocket, and gave it to her. Magan looked it over, even squinting one eye and holding it up to get a cleaner view of the coins. What on God’s green earth was her mother teaching her? He didn’t want to know, instead he just played along with it.

“That won’t do sir, you’re gonna have to come with me.” She ordered him to follow her into the kitchen, and directed him to sit behind the chairs she had set up as a blockade. “If you can’t to the time, don’t do the crime.” Chris vowed less TV time with this kid. Suddenly, he heard the front door open and a voice call inside.

“Hello?” chimed Joey as he let himself in, closing the door behind him, Kloey following behind. “Help!” Chris cried as convincingly as he could, making Joey run into the kitchen, then stop dead in his tracks when he saw Chris behind the chairs. “Please Joey, pay my bale bonds to this ruthless tea party hostess.” Joey shook his head and crossed his arms.

“Jesus Christ, Chris. You had me thinking this was a ‘Help I’ve Fallen and I Can’t Get Up’ situation.” said Joey.

“F you, I’m not that old. You only came close to a heart attack because I made you run.” vilified Chris with a smug look. 

“Touché.” Joey said, defeated and moved out of the way as Magan ran past him to go play with Kloey. “Looks like you’re sprung, good thing too, Lance asked me to ask you if you could cover his workload on that Pepsi add or something.” 

Chris looked confused at first, but quickly became annoyed. “This is the third time I’ve had to pick up his workload. Listen, I love Lance, he’s like a brother to me, you know that, but if our boss finds out all the work I’m doing for him, it won’t just be his head on a silver platter.” Joey nodded at Chris’ words. “Did he say why? Or were words unnecessary?” Joey contorted his face for a minute, signaling that Chris’ suspicions weren’t far off. “Psh, sworn off alcohol my ass.”

“Honestly, I don’t even know where he found the time to get drunk between leaving my house where the liquor cabinet was high out of his reach and locked, and from when he got home, I returned pretty late, stopped to eat something before getting home.” Joey told Chris, sighing and shaking his head. “Do you think this calls for some type of intervention?” 

Chris shook his head. “Not yet…What do you think?” 

Joey shook his head and they carried on. Chris eventually escaped his jail cell and got back to work, doing as his friend requested and picking up the workload. He checked the time, three fifty seven. Four thirty he’d get ready and make the meeting at the scheduled time. Joey agreed to take Magan for the day since this was the many rare days he had off from the hospital. 

***

“You’re a fucking piece of shit dad!” Miora screamed, slamming her bedroom door forcefully in Lance’s face. This morning had not gone off to a very good start for him. He’d finally passed out around four that morning after drinking an unhealthy amount of cranberry vodka concoctions. He’d woken up around one thirty, calling Joey to pass on a message to Chris he was too ashamed to ask him to his face then asked Miora is she had wanted breakfast, that’s when shit began rolling down hill.  
“Want some pancakes?” He asked her nicely, although he couldn’t really comprehend his surroundings in the midst of a hangover. 

“No.” 

“Cereal?” he tried again.

“No.” she said again, making Lance suspicious. 

“Umm, eggs and bacon?” 

“No.” this one was said in a more cruel tone. 

“Okay then what?” Lance asked, he was getting tired of playing with her attitude. 

“I want you to stop being such a drunken idiot of a father.” Miora stated plainly, leaving Lance not in shock, but with a hurtful pain in his chest. 

“I’m trying Miora, God damn, I’m try to make you breakfast like a father does but all you do is compl-“

“What?” Miora interrupted him angrily, shoving her cell phone away and looking her father in the eyes. “You think that attempting to make me breakfast makes you a good father? Or that it’s a good try? Well then you’re fucking wrong!” cried the fifteen year old, slamming her hand down on the table. 

Lance frowned. He too was beginning to feel upset and defensive. “Seriously, you’re going to talk to me like that? Real fucking classy, Miora, real fucking classy.” 

“Wanna know something else DAD, you’re the biggest hypocrite I know too. Always telling me what to do and what not to do when all you do is constantly jeopardize the good job you have and the life you could have for some stupid drink!” Miora was shouting now, making Lance feel infuriated but uneasy and guilty all at once. The worst part was, he had absolutely nothing to say back to that other than she was right, but he’d rather let the world burn than admit it now. “I’m going out.” She informed, sipping the last of the coffee she made herself and pulling her phone back out of it’s short retirement to txt someone. 

“No.” Lance said firmly, squinting eyes at her. “You think you can just sit here, cuss me out after I tried to be nice then run off out of the house? Well you thought wrong.” This is when Miora flipped him off and made her way violently into her bedroom, the fine wood of her door being Lance’s new view. Who the fuck was she going out with? Miora never talked to him about having friends or anything, not even making a mention of them. It genuinely riled Lance that she hid so much of her life from him, the entire year they had spent together was a year of nothing.

“Of course I didn’t tell him.” He unwittingly heard his daughter say through the door. “I’m sixteen next week and the bastard probably won’t even remember. He’ll only hate me more when I tell him about this.” Her voice was getting lower, Lance had a hard time making out anything else, but somehow he wished he’d never heard a word.

***

“How’s the coughing” asked Jason’s doctor, Drew Lachey. He was a very god doctor and a very good man, it took Justin very little time to become comfortable in trusting him with caring for Jason. 

“When it happens, it’s bad, really bad. Unbearable, but some nights there isn’t one in sight and he sleeps really damn well.” Justin elaborated for him and watched as he scribbled down on clipboard. 

“Any of the symptoms I talked about start showing?” Dr. Lachey questioned. It had been three days since the last time they had spoken about them, and slowly Justin began to notice them come into play such as the merciless diaper rash and bad diarrhea. He told Dr. Lachey about Jason’s condition, but due to his being under one year old, he was not eligible for stronger medication. Luckily, the Doctor had graciously given them a prescription ointment to ease his rash. “He’s looking pretty good today, isn’t it his eleven month birthday?” 

Justin smiled and nodded his head. “Yeah, quite the blessing.” He said and placed his son back into his frontal baby carrier and exited the room, Thanking Dr. Lachey. These hospital halls were so recognizable it almost seemed like a second for Justin. He normally took a strange back route to get out into the lobby instead of passing through the maternity ward, home to the delivery room in which his fiancé died. It was a bit of a twist and turn filled way, but it was considered the easy route to him. The corners were a bit sharp and normally these passages were meant for hustling nurses and Doctors, but today they were fairly empty. Justin turned one of the tricky corners and almost totaled Jason and himself running into the nurse that stood before him. “Oh my god.” He said apologetically holding out his hands and brushing her off. 

“What are you doing walking around back here with a baby?” She asked frustrated in her sweat southern accent that had Justin practically frozen where he stood. 

“I-i-I was, well we were just trying to go to the lobby.” He babbled stupidly. This nurse, this woman was beautiful. She was practically your favorite blonde out of sports illustrated but with a sweet, soft, innocence to her that really drew Justin in. 

“You could have gone through the maternity ward.” She pointed out, her mouth loosening up and forming a slight smile. “I’m nurse Spears, but call me Britney please.” She insisted and took Justin’s hand, walking him the rest of the way out of the building. “So, I’m pretty new here, tell me, are you?” 

Justin shook his head and laughed. “Nah, I practically live here, so I guess I should be the one to welcome you to the hospital.” 

Britney shrugged and clapped her hands together. “Well, I have to be getting back inside. I hope to see you again Justin.” She said like she meant it. Justin wasn’t about to pass this up.

“Here.” He handed her a slip of paper with his number on it that he’d taken from his wallet. “On your next day off.” 

The young woman nodded and took the paper, heading back inside the building as Justin walked Jason and himself back to the his car, deciding to drive up to Lance’s place and see what was up with him, he remembered Joey texting him about the condition he was in today, aka the lazy one. Justin strapped Jason into his car seat and climbed into the front with a smile still on his face. He barely knew Britney, but she was cute, funny, and Justin was excited to get to know her, even if this all just meant friendship. That’s all he really needed right now, someone out of their circle to talk to and have fun with, there was no way he was ready to start a relationship or anything like that with this girl, it had only been ten months and Justin was quite aware of the amount baggage he carried behind him.


	6. Good Lord You Guys

Justin, Lance, Joey, Chris and JC all ended up in Lance’s home at the end of the day with their kids with them, playing in the backyard. 

“So where’s Miora?” Joey asked gesturing for Lance to bring him a beer. 

Lance sighed and shook his head “Honestly, I don’t know, she has her phone, and I have her number, but I don’t know, after she yelled at me and shit she just went to her room, but came out about an hour later and took off out the door. She’s a moneyless fifteen year old, I’m not worried about it.” Explained Lance, that wasn’t all truth, of course he was worried for her, especially since she’d left on such bad terms with him. What if she was running away?

“She’ll be back.” said JC, struggling to open his beer, Chris laughing at him. 

“Dude, give me that.” Chris demanded, cracking it open and handing it back to JC. 

“Yeah, well. I wouldn’t question her motives if she didn’t.” Lance mumbled as he watched his friends finish off all his beers without him. “Couldn’t I have just one?” He asked knowing how pathetic he sounded.

“No.” Justin scorned. “This stuff is what got you in this mess.” 

“I am NOT in any mess. Everything is under control…Kind of.” He defended himself poorly. “Whatever, who cares, how did we even get on this subject? Let’s get back to that fine piece of ass Justin met at the hospital.” Lance said switching subjects.

“Lance, I told you that in confidence.” Justin whined, crossing his arms.

Lance shrugged. “That was a wrong move on your part.” 

“Wait, what hottie?” Chris chimed in, getting comfortable on Lance’s leather couch.

“Was she hot?” asked JC and everyone looked with sympathetic disapproval. 

“JC that was sort of what gave her the title ‘the hottie’.” Joey explained to his clueless friend. 

“Yeah JC, she was beautiful, but guys, I’m not looking to bang her or anything.” This statement made them all groan at Justin. 

“So you’ll just keep her around as a cock tease.” JC suggested raising his eyebrows.

Justin sighed and shook his head. “No, as a friend, she seems really cool. I’m-I’m just not ready for that kind of stuff eight now.” He told the guys who all laid off a little bit. “Now can we please hassle Lance about his Ken doll instead?” 

“Yes.” said Chris diabolically. “Let’s.” 

“Let’s not people, instead, you should all take your tiny children and go home.” Said Lance and made a shooing motion toward the door. 

“I won’t lie Lance, the boy is model material, but seriously? He’s probably dull as nails.” admitted JC.

Joey put his hand on JC’s shoulder and leaned down to his ear. “Nails aren’t dull.” He whispered and gave his friend two reassuring pats on his back. 

“I know he’s hot, but you’re wrong about him being dumb. Maybe a prude though. I mean come on, he owns a parenthood day-camp.” Lance reminded them. 

“Is he a dick sucker?” asked Joey, laughing even as Lance smacked him hard with the back of his hand. “Yes.” He answered none the less. “But like I said, he’s a bit of a prude as far as I can tell.” 

“You’re so pre-judgmental Lance, how would you know of his prude-ness? You barely if NOT EVEN spoken to the guy.” Joey reminded him this time. Lance was about to make his case when the knob to the front door turned, letting in Miora who looked very annoyed at the group of men who occupied the living room. 

“You’re back.” Lance said obviously surprised when Chris who was sitting next to him nudged him in the side. “I mean, of course you’re back. How was your time out?” He asked her casually as if their little dispute had never happened.

“Fine.” She with the same even voice and temper. “We should talk later.” She told him, seeming it to be more of a mandatory thing than optional. 

Lance paused for a minute but ultimately agreed. Miora gave him one last gesture of neutrality before turning the corner into the hall and disappearing into her room, closing the door much quieter than before. He could see all of his friends either smiling or sporting a thumbs up like JC, but the whole ‘private talk’ request made him feel more nervous than accomplished. 

Joey was the first to make some real noise, taking in a deep breath before he spoke. “Well, I’m glad I was here to witness this and have serious grown-up discussions with you guys, but I got to be going. This week is going to be pretty busy at the hospital so I’m gonna take the girls out to ice cream before I vanish for the week.” The other’s bid Joey goodbye after he’d left out the back door to grab Briahna and Kloey. Next to leave Lance was JC. He had earlier texted Lance about Christina and her little…performance and explained he was meeting her to pick up Jeremy from daycare together. Luckily Chris wasn’t an outside social and his daughter seemed to be entertained with knocking on Miora’s door then running off to hide when she opened it, and Justin played with Jason for a bit longer before he had to head home and put the baby to sleep. 

“Alright Magan, let’s get moving.” Chris said, watching her amused smile twist into a look of unpleasantness. “Maybe we can go get ice cream too.” He suggested, avoiding any conflict he had yet to run into with her. The mention of ice cream made Magan fully comply, telling Lance and Miora goodbye before taking Chris’ hand and heading out the door.

Lance didn’t call for her right away, he was tempted, but not too long ago learned what was controlling and nosey as well as what was not from some wack youtube videos. He waited for a good forty five minutes before she decided she felt like she wanted to share. Ironically and ever so sweetly, Miora emerged from the room and sat on the armchair across from him. 

“First of all, you’re a terrible father.” She began, Lance rolling his eyes as a response.

“Yes, yes, thank you for that.” 

“-and secondly, that I’m one month pregnant.” Miora blurted, making Lance sit up a bit straighter, acquiring a more serious composure. She couldn’t be telling the truth? “I’m only telling you because I don’t really know what to do.” She added.

Lance was rendered pretty speechless, but knew he had a few choice words to say like, “you’re too young.” and the classic stupid question of “how? “ He decided to skip that one since he really didn’t want to know. Who had been a contributor to Miora’s fate was another story. 

“It’s not like I don’t know that I’m too young, of course I am otherwise I wouldn’t bother telling you.” She said with venom in her voice. Truthfully, her words stung, but Lance pushed them to the side for the moment being. 

“You didn’t answer my question on the father.” He said, feeling something of guilt and impatience. 

Miora shook her head, pursing her lips. “That’s none of your business.” 

“God Miora, it’s like I’m not even your dad, like I have no effect or entitlement! What? What am I going to do? How am I going to help you when to you, I’m just someone who pays the bills and lets you live here. You’re not my roommate Miora, you’re my fucking daughter.” This time it was Lance’s turn to escape to his room. Ha, as if the rolls weren’t reversed and swapped constantly between his daughter and himself already. This was it, she’d become a chip of the old block, all in only the span of a year living together. God he sucked…

*****

It was very late in the night, around twelve thirty, but the girls weren’t tired yet, so taking them out for ice cream seemed appropriate. Joey had always thought 24 hour ice cream service was weird, but some places were just that awesome, and he wasn’t complaining. The place was small, and had an unstable playground in the back that Joey encouraged the girls to play on while he sat at a picnic table that sunk into the gravel just a bit not too far from them to look over some contracts he’d been reading up online about in terms of child custody between parents on his phone.

“Joey?” Said a voice that made his skin crawl. Joey looked up to see the not very tall but very buff Nick Lachey casted a smile down toward him that made him want to punch the asshole in his dumb face.

“What?” Joey answered back with an intentional rudeness in his tone. “I’m a little busy.” He said and turned his attention back to his phone.

“Nothing, I was just grabbing some ice cream with Kelly, we’re on a little midnight date.” He informed Joey, taking a spoonful of what seemed to be cookie dough flurry into his big mouth. “Wow, pretty coincidental that’d you’d be here too-“

“Yes, I get it Nick, we’re all here.” Joey interrupted him annoyed. 

Nick frowned and sat down across from him, looking at him with forced sympathy. “Listen man, I never wanted it to end up like this, but I just want to say, if you seriously care about the future of your daughters and their success, you’d let them go.” His words did nothing but escalate Joey’s temper, becoming infuriated. “By the way, I heard your house blew up…” 

That’s it, Joey was not going to sit here and listen to this guys bullshit. “NO IT DIDN’T, now could you PLEASE go away, I’m trying to spend some time with MY girls.” He scowled and buried his phone into his jean’s pocket, heading over to the play ground to play with them. He could see Kelly walk around into the back towards Nick, oblivious to Joey and the girls’ presence, but when she did notice, her mouth dropped open and she tugged on Nick’s huge arm back to the front. Kelly had the girls tomorrow when he went back to work which really sucked, he was almost afraid to lease them over to her for fear she’d run off with them to China. 

The next morning on Joey’s way to work, he dropped off Briahna and Kloey at Nick’s large house that obviously compensated for something. For the duration of the week Joey had to watch his kids go into that same house every morning, and return to him after he’d come back from the hospital. Kelly had offered to keep them all week and let him have the girls on the weekends but Joey refused, he wanted evenings and weekends as usual. The bickering about it carried on throughout the week but what could Joey do? He’d never hear the end of it until they took their custody battle to court. 

*****

Saturday soon came around again, surprisingly giving some of the men a sense of relief, as if the parenting practices would hopefully release some answers out into the open for them to consider. Together, the five of them met at the camp where this time they had arrived first before the other five men who attended the group last week. Chris found it hard to get Magan to get up this morning, he didn’t know why, but everything that had been so easy in the first few days was becoming slowly difficult to get her to do or not to do. This was something he’d have to remember to bring up to Michael to see if he could help. It was weird how this whole day=camp thing started as a joke, but transformed into something all five of them looked forward to after just the first session. It wasn’t enthusiasm or boredom that drove them into coming in, it was the feeling of being desperate.

“Good morning fellas.” Michael addressed them, sauntering into the room after the other five fathers had shown up, and taking an empty seat directly across from Lance. Just my luck, Lance thought to himself. “So since last week we got the nitty gritty out of the way, today we’ll actually be doing some activities, don’t worry, it’s not physical, if we ever do physical activity, I’m pretty good at warning you prior to your attendance.” Michael explained, looking out at the small group. “Some of you may find this silly, some might find it fun, but what I have here are those ‘get to know you’ sheets from your first day of high school.” Some scattered chuckles were heard and Michael smiled. “Contrary to primary belief, most children don’t know their parent’s favorite food or color and vise versa. As insignificant as these little details about ourselves may seem, they play a huge part in our interaction.” Michael scanned the room again. “you.” He said pointing to Lance and Lance almost died of sudden heart attack. “Lance, how difficult is it to pick out a Christmas gift or whatever for Miora?” He asked gently, seeming careful as to not put him on the spot.

“Umm, pretty hard I guess.” He replied pretty lamely. “We don’t really know each other that well, but I did miss out on ten or nine years of her life.” He confessed. 

Michael nodded, acknowledging his honesty. “Joey, you have Briahna here who is ten now? What’s her favorite food?” 

Joey was blank, he knew all sorts of food she liked but he wasn’t sure on the specifics of her favored preference. “You know, I’m not too sure.” 

“Daddy.” Briahna said looking at him sternly. “It’s obviously anything you make.” Said the girl sweetly and Joey smiled. 

“Well you heard the girl.” He laughed and gave her a high-five. 

“Joey.” Michael said handing him his questioner and heading down the line of guys, giving them each the survey thingy. “Lance.” Michael’s voice almost murmured making Lance ridged, taking the paper from the younger man, his fingers brushing against his. Fucking tease, Lance thought to himself again. 

The questioner was fairly short, just general easy questions. For the fathers with smaller children who could barely comprehend what real food tasted like or what color made them happy like Justin and AJ, they had the luxury of sitting back and watching their friends stress over what their favorite restaurant truly was as if it were a big deal. Kevin and Howie also had smaller children, but had second older children who sufficed for the activity. 

“I know you’re babies only ten months…” started AJ who came over daringly and took a seat next to Justin who was feeding Jason his formula. “But you seem like that guy who never puts his baby down.” 

Justin couldn’t say he was wrong, which kind of sucked, so he just shrugged. “I mean, for naps and stuff sometimes.” 

“I didn’t mean it like you were crazy, it’s just…you don’t use a baby carrier, like mine.” AJ pointed to where he’d come from at the baby carrier bedded with leopard print interior. 

Justin and his fiancé were gifted with these before Jason was born, but after the delivery, Justin had taken it upon himself to get one that strapped to his body and cradled the baby close. It was safer, and less cumbersome in his opinion, not to mention he’d barely put Jason down after he’d been born or even when he brought him in for doctor’s visits. “They’re big, not very convenient don’t you think?” He brought up.

AJ cocked his head at the carrier for a moment and nodded. “Yes.” his eyebrows raised. “Ever let anyone else hold Jason?” AJ asked Justin thoughtlessly, but he didn’t seem to mind as he shook his head. 

“…Nope, only his mother and the doctors. You see these five guys I come in with, we’re all best friends, especially Chris and I. none of them have ever held Jason.” Why he was admitting all of this to some parent he went to a day camp for two days with, he didn’t know. 

“Wow, I feel like I can never keep Ava in my arms, people are always wanting to hold her and play with her, especially my wife.” He explained, twirling his mustache with the tip of his index finger.

“Finshed?” Michael asked everyone who threw him a thumbs-up or a nod. “Alright then, Lance, why don’t you start?” 

Why the fuck was Michael always picking on him? Better question, why was Lance worrying about it? This was probably nothing. “Uh, what do you want me to do?” He asked a bit confuse.

Lance could’ve sworn Michael winked before he spoke. “Tell us what you’ve learned and how knowing this can affect your relationship with Miora.” 

“oh.” 

*****

They finished group at the time they were promised, walking outside into the fairly cool air with the other men. Spring had just arrive a few weeks ago so the weather felt right. “It was nice seeing you guys again.” JC said waving goodbye as him and his friends headed in the opposite direction. The men said likewise and left.

Chris hadn’t forgotten to ask Michael about Magan’s behavior, informing Michael about his situation while everyone was in the midst of filling out their sheets. “She’s getting used to you.” Michael replied simply. “This is a good thing, it doesn’t make behavior or habits easier, but she’s letting her polite house guest guard down.” 

Chris thought about this all the way home while Magan played with her Leap Pad in the backseat. What if she grew up to be a trouble child, sex, drugs, booze, the whole shebang? Shit what did he get himself into?

*****

Lance Let Miora hitch a ride with Justin as she asked since their terms were again, not very good, and Justin lived fairly close to Lance. It didn't matter, this only gave Lance a chance to lag behind intentionally and catch a word with Michael like he'd planned. He went back inside the building once everyone had left and up to the front desk where Michael sat, looking up and smiling as Lance leaned his body against the desk. "Watchya doin?" he asked. 

Michael raised his eyebrows and shrugged. "Nothing, counting your money." 

Honesty, less prudish than Lance suspected. "Yeah? I could think of something more exciting to do." this was it, he couldn't pussy out now.

"Enlighten me." Michael replied, lowering his eyes back to the computer, all ears.


End file.
